1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to development of test solutions, and more particularly to development of test solutions for communications circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication devices are becoming increasingly prevalent in the daily lives of many people. With many applications already in existence, and increasing numbers of applications already planned, the designs for these wireless devices have been moving from being driven by technology to becoming commodities where cost becomes the critical feature. Accordingly, the integration level of the individual integrated circuits, as well as chip sets, used for these devices has increased, thereby lowering many costs, particularly at the system level. As a result of this, production testing and adjusting of these devices is now becoming a larger factor in terms of unit costs. Accordingly, lower costs for performing these tests is becoming increasingly critical.
In one method, costs may be reduced by preventing defective devices from reaching a consumer. FIG. 1 depicts a functional block diagram of entities typically involved in creating circuits that implement a communication standard such as IEEE 802.11, 802.16, 802.22, and other suitable communication standards. A development organization 12 typically designs and develops circuits that substantially conform to the communication standard, but does not manufacture the circuits. The development organization 12 may create a design specification for the circuit that substantially conforms with the communication standard.
The development organization 12 typically uses a manufacturing organization 14 to mass produce manufactured circuits that substantially conform to the design specification. The manufacturing organization 14 and the development organization 12 are typically in different geographic locations.
The manufacturing organization 14 typically works with a test solution organization 16 to create a test solution. The test solution, which may include test circuits and/or test software, is used as a quality control measure to verify whether the manufactured circuits substantially conform to the design specification and the communication standard.
The test solution typically requires customization to be implemented within the manufacturing organization 14. Therefore, the test solution organization 16 and the manufacturing organization 14 work closely (typically in the same geographical location) to create a customized test solution once the design specification is received from the development organization 12. Customization of the test solution may be iterative and time consuming. This time consuming process adversely affects when a consumer 18 can receive the manufactured circuits, which is undesirable.
It is therefore desirable to provide, among other things, a method of developing a test solution with a reduced time to market.